MOORE — Despite playing on their home field, Southmoore’s fastpitch team struggled over the weekend. Playing in the Annual Moore-Southmoore Fastpitch Festival, the SaberCats went 1-3 during the two day tournament against many of the top teams in the state.
Friday, the No. 17 Cats opened the tourney with a 3-2 loss to No. 7 Owasso. They then were hammered 13-1 by defending 6A champion Broken Arrow.
Saturday Southmoore didn’t get off to a much better start. They defeated Lawton Eisenhower 6-4, but coach Jeff Small was not happy with his team’s performance.
Small said he had a conversation with his team directly following the Eisenhower contest. He wanted to see better effort in their final game of the tournament against No. 8 Tulsa Union.
The matchup with the Hurricanes turned into a pitching and defensive battle. Both teams entered the fifth inning scoreless. However, the Cats were able to get runners on first and third with just one out. But after Crystal Houchins popped out, Southmoore was caught trying a double steal, which ended the inning.
Southmoore once again had runners in scoring position in the sixth inning when Shelby Smith made it to third base. Unfortunately for the Cats, Hartley Tyler grounded out to end the inning.
“You have a 0-0 ball game, both pitchers are throwing very well, both teams are playing good defense.” Small said, “You are not going to get very many opportunities. And when you get them, if you want to be the victor that day, you have to cash in on those opportunities.”
That’s what Union finally did in the bottom of the sixth when the Canes finally touched up Kaitlyn Smith for a couple runs on consecutive extra base hits.
“Brown made some great pitches,” Small said. “She made one mistake in the sixth inning. They got one more behind that. But she threw awesome.”
Trailing 2-0 in the seventh, the Cats attempted to make a comeback. With Braeden Bradshaw and Paige Hobby on second and third base, Rachel Copus collected a RBI groundout to close gap one run. Houchins had a chance to tie the contest, but grounded out to end the game.
“We played up and down,” Small said. “Our kids came back out this afternoon and played really hard and competed really hard. I’m proud of how they played.”
Yet, Small said with the schedule the Cats have to go through this season, they have to get more out of their offense.
“Brown has been throwing awesome for us all year,” Small said. “We have to back her up and give her a little more run support. She is playing well enough to win and we have to find ways to get that done.”
Michael Kinney 366-3537 Mkinney@mooreamerican.com
